Fugitive's phone-ins will have only toxic repercussions

Survival so far has not been through hard-fought battles. As Abhisit continues to chalk up more points at regional and international events, the local scene looks pretty messy, with red-shirted hecklers pestering Cabinet members wherever they hold meetings with rural officials and villagers.

Thaksin has resorted to low-cost means to incite dissent among his red-shirted admirers who have the full support of the Pheu Thai Party. There is no attempt to conceal their relationship now. Wherever Pheu Thai MPs go, they are greeted by red-shirted supporters with anti-government placards.

There are no niceties for Cabinet members. They face boos and jeers from red-shirted hecklers who usually turn thuggish and violent by throwing eggs, water bottles and other objects at their targets. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban ordered police to take action after his limousine was mobbed in Pathum Thani.

Desperate or otherwise, Thaksin finds that his phone-in talks to a gullible audience work quite well. Normally, opposition MPs find it difficult to draw enough people to hear their anti-government tirades. The turnout of people is more substantial with the promise of a phone-in.

Thaksin's schmoozing is nothing spectacular. His talks contain the same old lines of beseeching mixed with half-truths, boasts and outright falsehoods. Distortions of fact and baseless claims are the norm in his ramblings.

This signifies the fact, on his own admission, that the man is lonely abroad. Thaksin spends several hours each day talking on the phone. Judging from the people he deals with daily, the number is staggering.

Starting with his siblings, who live separately in three countries, Thaksin has to let them know that he is sane enough to communicate and find issues to talk with them about. The next group is his brother and sisters - cousins could be included occasionally - who lead regional political activities and organising funding. This is because he trusts nobody else in the matter of bankrolling protests and rallies.

Then come all the campaigners who have assignments to destabilise the Abhisit Cabinet by all means. His talks involve the ringleaders of the red-shirted mob, who are charged with creating ugly scenes to show that the government is not in control of the situation.

Next are the politicians who are barred from active politics by the Constitutional Tribunal and the Constitutional Court. They are the leftovers and remnants of the dissolved political parties, who must endure disgrace for five years.

Frequent talks are held daily with those marked to lead the no-confidence debate scheduled for later this month. Despite some ludicrous allegations, the opposition is quite confident that what it holds should be used to embarrass its targets, or at least discredit the government in the eyes of the public. 

With all these activities, Thaksin is not the tame dog he claimed to be during a phone-in talk recently, when he asserted that he remained loyal to the monarchy. Not only that, he promised to be tamer if given a new lease of life through a pardon or an amnesty.

Even if he does not have a split personality, Thaksin at least cannot be taken seriously in word or deed. He is not a tame dog, but rather an attack dog obsessed with hatred and the desire to carry out a successful political vendetta.

As evidence shows, the red-shirt ringleaders have been charged with violence and lese majeste, and await court proceedings. A female red-shirt orator remains in prison after she was arrested on a lese majeste charge. At least three have fled the country on similar charges.

Now that the red-shirted campaigners have been caught and linked with anti-monarchy campaigns, we can see the relationship among their supporters and the field operatives. Thaksin provides support to red-shirted hecklers who have a close alliance with the Pheu Thai Party, so it is easy to deduce whether he is indeed a tame dog or a fox full of tricks and guile.

So, Thaksin's claim of loyalty to the monarchy should be taken with a pinch of salt. A man who flees a jail term and court proceedings, while at the same time attacking the country of his birth, should only be branded a traitor.

If Thaksin means what he says, his first act should be to cease and desist from supporting the red-shirt campaigners who continue to attack the monarchy by devious means.

The way to silence his phone-in talks is for the Foreign Ministry to cancel his passport and request that Interpol go after him. His acid tongue is toxic and corrosive to national security.